Fostering a Culture of Discourse in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms

The continued proliferation of linguistic diversity in US mainstream classrooms, coupled with the language demands of the Common Core Standards for mathematics instruction (CCSSM), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Principles to Actions (PtA), has prompted educational researchers to identify effective, linguistically relevant practices for preparing secondary mathematics educators adept at meeting the needs of emergent bilingual students. In this article, the authors argue for implementation of teacher education courses in mathematics that infuse "pedagogical language knowledge" as a tool for providing future teachers the skills and dispositions to foster a "classroom culture of discourse." This call comes in light of the discipline-specific language demands of the above-mentioned standards and secondary students' use of variable linguistic repertoires across and within languages to learn and display mathematical thinking and ideas.